Local authorities will have to cut £1.2billion from this year’s budgets according to spending plans published today by the Chancellor, George Osborne. Although ring-fencing will be removed from other grants, allowing local authorities greater freedom and flexibility in deciding how to spend their money, NLGN calculates that councils will still face a 15% cut to [...]

Responding to the announcement today that the Government is to undertake a full review of local government finance, NLGN Acting Director Anna Turley said: “It is very refreshing that both the Conservatives and Lib Dems feel strongly enough to tackle the issue of local government finance in their Coalition Agreement. Given the way the Lyons [...]

Polling published by NLGN show strong support from local government leaders for new measures to tackle financial exclusion. With figures showing[1] that more than a third of low earners are finding it difficult to access credit during the recession, NLGN argues that the Government should build on its commitment this week to provide a basic [...]

Director of New Local Government Network Chris Leslie reacts to the Chancellor’s Budget Statement.

A lack of joined-up working across Whitehall departments risks undermining the Government’s Total Place initiative according NLGN’s new report. In one of the most detailed studies so far on Total Place, the research finds that whilst billions of savings could be achieved at the local level by better joined-up services, a lack of coherence between [...]

Abusing social housing should change from a civil to a criminal offence 50,000 properties estimated to be unlawfully sub-let Call backed by the Chartered Institute of Housing Savings of £750m could be made by recovering all unlawfully sub-let properties Social housing tenants who sub-let their properties should be prosecuted for fraud according to a new [...]

The New Local Government Network has welcomed Government backing of its proposals to build more allotments on private land, announced today by Communities Secretary John Denham MP and Environment Secretary Hilary Benn MP. In September 2009, NLGN called on the Government and local councils to make better use of the estimated 3,500 hectares of unused [...]

With CIPFA predicting a 1.8% average council tax rise and the LGA echoing this prediction with an estimate of 1.6%, it is clear that local authorities are bearing down on council tax levels for financial year 2010/11. But Director of think tank New Local Government Network Chris Leslie argues “this may be in part because [...]